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Guide
to Effective Programs
for Children and Youth
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JOB OPPORTUNITIES AND BASIC SKILLS TRAINING PROGRAM (JOBS)
OVERVIEW
JOBS was a program of services designed to enhance welfare-receiving parents' job skills and opportunities. One variation of JOBS promoted the rapid acquisition of employment; the second emphasized education and job training. Both variations had case management, mandated program activity, and child care assistance components. A large-scale experimental evaluation shows that family participation has negative impacts on reports of children's health and safety, generally positive impacts on children's cognitive and academic outcomes, and a mix of positive and negative impacts on children's behavioral and emotional outcomes.
DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM
Target population: Families receiving welfare
Under the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program (JOBS)-created as part of the Family Support Act of 1988-welfare recipients were provided, and required to participate in, education, training, and job search activities as a condition of receiving Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). Specifically, JOBS was designed to provide either job training and education or the quick acquisition of a job for those receiving welfare. The JOBS program condition was designed to be different from participation in welfare receipt in general (i.e., the control group in the evaluation described below) in that it provided special messages and case management, it mandated participation in JOBS program activities, it provided access to particular work preparation activities, and it assured eligibility for child care assistance to its participants.
JOBS was replaced by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) in 1996, shifting the emphasis from job training to job placement (Brooks-Gunn, Britto, & Brady, 1999). However, an evaluation of JOBS provides valuable lessons on the efficacy of parental education and job training in alleviating poverty and altering child development.
Evaluated population: Over 3,000 families with preschool-age children in Atlanta, GA, Grand Rapids, MI, and Riverside, CA were studied for the Child Outcomes Study of the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies.
Mothers were randomly assigned to one of three programs between 1991 and 1994. The first was a JOBS program that emphasized the rapid acquisition of employment (the "labor force attachment" approach); the second was a JOBS program that emphasized longer-term training and education (the "human capital development" approach); and the third was the traditional AFDC (control group). Two years later, child outcomes such as cognitive development, academic achievement, behavior, emotional development, health, and safety, were assessed. Assessments consisted of cognitive testing of the children and mother reports (Zaslow, McGroder, & Moore, 2000).
Participation in JOBS had negative or null impacts on children's physical health and safety ratings, generally positive impacts on children's cognitive development and academic achievement, and an overall mix of positive and negative impacts on behavioral and emotional development. Outcomes varied by site, and by the type of JOBS experimental condition. The human capital development approach, in particular, produced favorable impacts on children's cognitive school readiness tests; the labor force attachment approach had negative impacts on children's behavioral outcomes (Zaslow, McGroder, & Moore, 2000).
SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION
References:
Brooks-Gunn, J., Britto, P. R., & Brady, C. (1999). Struggling to make ends meet: Poverty and child development. In M.E. Lamb (Ed.), Parenting and child development in "nontraditional" families (pp. 279-304). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Zaslow, M. J., McGroder, S. M., & Moore, K. A. (2000). The national evaluation of welfare-to-work strategies: Impacts on young children and their families two years after enrollment: Findings from the Child Outcomes Study [Online]. Available on the World Wide Web at: http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/newws/child-outcomes/summary.htm
Program also discussed in the following Child Trends publication(s):
Child
Trends. (2001). School readiness: Helping communities get children ready for
school and schools ready for children (Research brief). Washington, DC:
Child Trends.
Halle,
T., Zaff, J., Calkins, J., & Margie, N. G. (2000). Background for
community-level work on school readiness: A review of definitions, assessments,
and investment strategies. Part II: Reviewing the literature on contributing
factors to school readiness. Washington, DC: Child Trends, Inc.
SUMMARY & CATEGORIZATION
Program categorized in this guide according to the
following:
Evaluated participant ages: preschool-age children /
Program age ranges in the Guide: 0-5
Program components: Clinic/provider-based
Measured outcomes: Education/cognitive, Social/emotional,
Physical health
Program information last updated 10/17/01.
